The genus Liporrhopalum was described by Waterston in 1920 for a single female collected in Peradeniya, Ceylon, by A. Rutherford on 1. viii. 1913 "on laboratory table"; this became the type species as L. rutherfordi.The identity of the host fig species remained unknown until I collected specimens very similar to this species in Hong Kong (Hill, 1967a & b) from Ficus tinctoria Forst. f. ssp. gibbosa (Bl.) Corner. The Hong Kong species was separated from L. rutherfordi, mainly on biological grounds, and was named L. gibbosae Hill. The main reason for this separation was that of host difference, but the number of lamellae on the mandibular appendage also differed (i.e. four and five or six). According to Corner (1965) the subspecies gibbosa of Ficus tinctoria occurs no farther west in S.E. Asia than Malaya, Thailand and the South Andaman Islands (fig. 35), whereas the subspecies parasitica (nominate variety) is found throughout India and Ceylon (fig. 34). Hence it is reasonable to assume that the host fig for L. rutherfordi was a tree of Ficus tinctoria ssp. parasitica (Willd.) Corner var. parasitica, and so the slight differences between the respective female wasps were accepted as specific characters.Recently, collections of fig-wasps have been made by Professor E. J. H.Corner in Borneo (1961 & 1964), New Guinea (1960 & 1964), and the Solomon Islands (1965), and by Dr. J. T. Wiebes in the Philippines (19641965); this together with material collected by Professor Dr. J. van der Vecht in Java in 1954 represents the sampling of a wide selection of Ficus species from subsection Palaeomorphe. As can be seen from table 1, there are thirtynine species or varieties of Ficus comprising subsection Palaeomorphe, of section Sycidium, and the present study includes wasps from sixteen of these